I've said it all along--this is really year 1 of the rebuilding project. When all those juniors left early, it meant we had no upperclassmen worth a ****. For as under-perfoming as guys like Forston and Vernon were, they'd make a big difference on this team. The only juniors and seniors on the defensive depth chart worth a **** are McGee and Telemaque (and that's being generous).
That said, it's tough to believe we are THIS bad. I get that these guys are trying to lay the foundation for something that will prove its worth down the road, but there's got to be some relatively simple adjustments you can make to stop the bleeding. When you line up pre-snap the same exact way on three consecutive plays where you get gashed for 15+ yard carries, something is wrong.
I just can't tell if these guys are being so rigid for the sake of teaching their scheme, or if they lack the wherewithal to actually make adjustments on the fly. A couple of things keep me from the ledge: First, believe it or not, I have seen some improvement from the defense, in particular the linebackers have progressed significantly from week 1. It's not much, but we actually got some big stops on Saturday.
Second, Golden appears to know what he is doing--he has a plan, and he is sticking to it. You might question the plan (and its results thus far), but this is the same thing he did at Temple. He inherited a program that was essentially dead, recruited his *** off, brought in talent, and started a ton of freshmen his first two years, and he had them turned around and playing well in years 3, 4, and 5.
Look at the numbers from Temple (http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/footba...otal&sort=1124&conference=I-A_all&year=2006):
Scoring defense
2006: ranked 121st
2007: ranked 59th
2008: ranked 47th
2009: ranked 34th
2010: ranked 19th
Total defense:
2006: ranked 120th
2007: ranked 50th
2008: ranked 84th
2009: ranked 38th
2010: ranked 18th
There is a clear and very pronounced upward trajectory.
I didnt look at the actual rankings from when Golden was the DC at Virginia, but it looks like he had a similar experience: From 2001 to 2004, the Cavaliers' defense improved under his tutelage, ranking 108th in total defense in his first year to ranking 18th in total defense in 2004. In the same time period, Virginia's scoring defense went from 74th in the nation (27.6 ppg) to 17th (17.7 ppg) utilizing Golden's 3–4 defense.
That said, it's tough to believe we are THIS bad. I get that these guys are trying to lay the foundation for something that will prove its worth down the road, but there's got to be some relatively simple adjustments you can make to stop the bleeding. When you line up pre-snap the same exact way on three consecutive plays where you get gashed for 15+ yard carries, something is wrong.
I just can't tell if these guys are being so rigid for the sake of teaching their scheme, or if they lack the wherewithal to actually make adjustments on the fly. A couple of things keep me from the ledge: First, believe it or not, I have seen some improvement from the defense, in particular the linebackers have progressed significantly from week 1. It's not much, but we actually got some big stops on Saturday.
Second, Golden appears to know what he is doing--he has a plan, and he is sticking to it. You might question the plan (and its results thus far), but this is the same thing he did at Temple. He inherited a program that was essentially dead, recruited his *** off, brought in talent, and started a ton of freshmen his first two years, and he had them turned around and playing well in years 3, 4, and 5.
Look at the numbers from Temple (http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/footba...otal&sort=1124&conference=I-A_all&year=2006):
Scoring defense
2006: ranked 121st
2007: ranked 59th
2008: ranked 47th
2009: ranked 34th
2010: ranked 19th
Total defense:
2006: ranked 120th
2007: ranked 50th
2008: ranked 84th
2009: ranked 38th
2010: ranked 18th
There is a clear and very pronounced upward trajectory.
I didnt look at the actual rankings from when Golden was the DC at Virginia, but it looks like he had a similar experience: From 2001 to 2004, the Cavaliers' defense improved under his tutelage, ranking 108th in total defense in his first year to ranking 18th in total defense in 2004. In the same time period, Virginia's scoring defense went from 74th in the nation (27.6 ppg) to 17th (17.7 ppg) utilizing Golden's 3–4 defense.
